Rounding up Sunday's links, as Andre Ethier celebrates his 29th birthday….
- Jon Lester told WEEI.com's Rob Bradford that he didn't talk to Clay Buchholz about the pros and cons of signing a long-term extension before the right-hander inked a four-year pact today.
- Travis Ishikawa admitted he hoped another team would claim him when he was placed on waivers earlier this season, according to MLB.com's Chris Haft. However, now he says he's glad he's still with the Giants organization and is excited to stay on the West Coast, playing for Triple-A Fresno.
- Dejan Kovacevic of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette looks back at the trade that sent Xavier Nady to the Yankees. Kovacevic argues that even if three of the four players the Pirates received for Nady don't work out, Jose Tabata alone makes it a steal for Pittsburgh.
- Juan Rivera isn't off to a good start with his new team, as Mike Rutsey of the Toronto Sun writes. The Blue Jays are reportedly interested in trading Rivera, but his performance so far likely isn't helping draw any interest.
- The Indians will have some roster shuffling to do when injured players return, writes Paul Hoynes of the Cleveland Plain Dealer, who also addresses trade possibilites in a Tribe mailbag.
- Nationals infielder Alex Cora should make a good manager someday, says MLB.com's Marty Noble.
As far as I’m concerned if Rivera keeps up this pace he should be released in a few weeks, for a guy like podsednik or Patterson. Then we need to fix our Error machine at 3B. I’d rather see Lawrie making these mistakes than E-5
What is Jose Tabata’s status? Cots says he has a one year (2011) contract with Pittsburgh. Don’t they have rights to him longer than that?
Under control until 2016.
And we’re GLAD about that – the kid’s a helluva ballplayer.
He’s arbitration eligible, so yes he’s under team control. Most teams who have pre-arb, and arb, players end up doing one year contracts. So while they still control the rights and will retain him for longer than this year, he’s only under contract for this year. They will renew the contract next year.
Didn’t he have some kind of attitude problem?
Look at below post.
No attitude problem. There was a custody battle in which his wife was arrested for taking their child without his consent. Tabata is an absolute joy, always smiling. and so are pirate fans in regards to him.
He had some problems with the Double-AA management, reported drinking, and he was benches. They said he left a game before it ended. There was also some reports of age discrepancy. Glad he turned it around. I wonder why the Yankees gave up on him…
Yankees didn’t give up on him. They made a trade they thought would help them win a world series in which they had to give him up. The season he was traded he went from can’t miss prospect to fringe player.
Also, they wanted Xavier Nady who they thought was at the verge of becoming a much better player than in past years. While it was X’s breakout season, he hurt his throwing elbow the next year and needed Dr. Frank Jobe surgery to repair it.
After that X’s career went south and Nick Swisher’s went north with Swish becoming the regular Yankee right fielder.
He has half a season in, he’s not even close to being arbitration eligible. At the very least this year and next provided he becomes a super two, otherwise, this year and the next two before he’s eligible for arbitration.
Who is the best leadoff hitter in MLB? Whoever it is can’t be that much better than Jose Tabata. His numbers have been great but more importantly he has been the prototypical leadoff man. If, and this is a huge if, he continues to develop, he could be a perennial all star.
Not happy with Juan Rivera? So what! You’re free of that horrible Wells contract.
Very true, however when podsednik and Patterson are healthy they need to take a bench spot and put Encarnacion at 1B/DH. I would rather pay Rivera to be a FA because there is no one stupid enough to take his contract on. I know it’s early but I already don’t like him. I don’t dislike many players, he just seems to not want to be here.
Agree with you completely. Except send Encarnacion to single a or release him on his ass
Think about what you just said. “No one is stupid enough to take on his contract”. Are you aware of who he was dealt for?
Curse of the large market team, we will forever supply other teams’ futures.
Before getting them back in free agency right before they begin their decline… It’s a terrible cycle.
That’s not entirely true, and you and I both know that. It’s more like getting them back for their prime years for a large paycheck, and most likely also paying them the same for their declining years.
So you’re saying that Ethier has turned a non-tender 29?
He needs to be moved to first base. And is anyone as bad at hitting lefties as he is?
2010 Adam Lind
I disagree with the Tabata article when it says “got little out of Nady and Marte”. Marte was nails in the playoffs when the Yankees won the World Series. I’m sure they’d love to have Tabata back but they’ve got a ring for which Marte deserves some credit so it wasn’t a bust for NY at all.
I agree that here in Pittsburgh we like to think we hustled the Yankees. We didn’t plain and simple. It reminds me of the Ricardo Rincon Brian Giles trade. Pittsburghers love to say we hustled the Indians when in fact we got their 5th outfielder for an extremely important piece of their pen. The fact that we stunk with Giles to me means we made a good trade and did nothing else to improve that team.
AA is good but I really don’t see how he could trade Rivera. He looks awful can’t hit, can’t run and can’t play the outfield. It’s time for AA to accept his 5 million dollar loss and realease him.